Municipality – Police Powers

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Civil

WI Court of Appeals – District II

Officials: Neubauer, C.J., Reilly, P.J., and Gundrum, J.

Municipality – Police Powers

2015AP403 First State Bank v. Town of Omro

The issue presented is whether a municipality may use its police powers to build roads and levy special assessments against the land benefitted after a developer defaults in its obligation to build the roads. The Barony subdivision, a seventy-four lot subdivision in the Town of Omro, received final plat approval in 2004. By 2009, only a few of the lots had been sold and First State Bank had acquired all sixty-five remaining lots in lieu of foreclosure. As of 2009, the roads in the subdivision had not been paved. In 2013, the Town authorized finishing the roads and specially assessed the lots within the Barony subdivision for the cost of completing the roads. The Bank challenges the Town’s authority to levy the special assessments as to all lots and specifically challenges the assessments as to lots four, five, and fifty-five, which do not abut any of the roads built by the Town. We affirm that part of the circuit court’s summary judgment decision ratifying the Town’s special assessment against the lots that benefit from the road project. We reverse that part of the court’s decision that found that the three lots not abutting the improved roads received special benefits; there is a genuine factual dispute over this issue, making it inappropriate for resolution at the summary judgment stage.

Affirmed in part

Reversed and remanded in part

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.